Rohan Gunaratna
Rohan Gunaratna is a Sri Lankan researcher on terrorism. He is the head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is a Senior Fellow at the Jebsen Center for Counter Terrorism Studies, Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy and an Honorary Fellow at the International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism in Israel. He has served as a consultant to the United Kingdom and United States law enforcement communities.
Gunaratna said in a telephone interview on 7 January 2006 that a terrorist attack in Bangkok, Thailand is "now just a matter of time. [Southern insurgents] have the capabilities, and their reach is increasing. They're increasingly able to operate outside the traditional territory of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. Bangkok must improve the quality of its intelligence. This insurgency is an intelligence war – it's not so much a military campaign. By increasing the military presence, the hostility of the Muslims will grow and the insurgency will gain more support."[1]
Gunaratna, commenting on Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist organization that is banned throughout most of Asia as a terrorist organization, said "It actively promotes dismantling the state of Israel" and "attacking the United States."[2]
[1]In the international world of Intelligence analysts, Sri Lanka-born slick performer Rohan Gunaratna had transformed into the ‘Temple Drum’ of Terrorism Industry.The camouflage and cloak of this slick artist had been scruitinised, and Gary Hughes had produced an expose for the Melbourne Age newspaper on July 20th.
The expose by Gary Hughes reveals that Gunaratna has some peculiar talent for (a) social climbing, (b) academic imposturing, (c) name dropping and (d) vita forgery, by puffing his vita with non-existing positions. To appreciate the expose of Gary Hughes, it would be helpful if one first reads how the Temple Drum of Terrorism Industry paraded himself as the Emperor of the Terrorism Analyst. A good example of such a performance was Gunaratna’s interview, which appeared in Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine of November 2002. Thus, in this assembled anthology on Rohan Gunaratna, I provide the following publicly available material in series, and follow it with an end note on Sri Lanka’s other con persons who made some wave in the past.
External links
- International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research
- Asean News Network, Rohan Gunaratna
- Bradley Hope, How Commissioner Kelly Reads His Way To Vigilance on Crime, New York Sun October 2006.
- Daniel Hoare, Gareth Evans downplays terrorist risk in Australia